Dawn of Understanding
by Athelassa
Summary: "Someday you'll understand," Ward had told her on that fateful day Hydra had raised its ugly head. Months and a terrifying transformation later, Skye is not even an inch closer to comprehend the man who betrayed them all. When all comes together in a mission and she encounters someone from his past, can she finally start to understand the complicated mess that is Grant Ward?
1. Chapter 1

**Dawn of Understanding**

_Summary: "Someday you'll understand," Ward had told her back then on that fateful day Hydra had raised its ugly heads for the first time. Months and a terrifying transformation later, Skye is not even an inch closer to comprehend the man who betrayed the team and her. All she can see is the lies and the path of destruction he left behind. However, when all comes together in a mission and she encounters someone from his past, can she finally start to understand the complicated mess that is Grant Ward? Set five weeks after 2x10._

_A/N: This idea has been with me for months so I had to finally get it out of my system. It's my first time playing around with Skye's point of view, I hope all of you asking for more Skye in my stories are happy now. :-))_

_I expect that this story will probably be around three chapters long. Sooo... slightly longer than my one-shots, but short enough to promise I'll finish it. ;-)_

_As always: Constructive criticism is very much appreciated._

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"I'm in," Skye whispered into the comm, wriggling through a broken window and looking around the abandoned warehouse.

"Good," she heard May's calm voice in her ear. "Take a careful look around, but whatever happens, don't engage. Do remember that the target is pyro-kinetic and we've seen already how dangerous they can be. I want you to get familiar with the perimeter and report anything unusual, then wait for me." There was a short pause, before her S.O. added, "I mean it, Skye. Keep a close watch on your pulse, we can't have the whole building come crashing down."

"Yes, ma'am," Skye answered dutifully, barely keeping herself from heaving a sigh.

It had been five weeks since she had received her new 'gift'. It definitely felt much longer. Nowadays, everyone seemed to either treat her as if she was made of glass and had to be cocooned all the time (May and Coulson) or as if she would suddenly explode if someone only twitched the wrong way (everyone else). It was so very tiring. Sure, she was far away from controlling her powers, but that did not mean that everything else had changed. She was the same girl from before, but no one seemed to get that. It was not as if she had suddenly forgotten all her training or her personality.

The reactions of the people around her were probably the hardest thing about her transformation. Of course it is scary to make the ground shake whenever you are upset, but it was nothing compared to suddenly see fear in the eyes of your closest friends whenever they look at you. That just hurt. They tried to mask it, tried to joke like nothing had happened, but Skye was already too well trained in the spy business to notice the falseness. Jemma was probably the worst. While her scientific interest was very much piqued by Skye's transformation, her fear overrode it all. Fitz was slightly better, but he had so many issues with himself that Skye felt bad for stressing him out even more.

She had to confess that she had thought about leaving. But where should she go? What should she do? S.H.I.E.L.D. was the only family she ever knew. Yes, she now knew she had a father that was still alive, but this relationship was certainly... complicated. Skye could feel her heartrate picking up even when thinking about him and forced herself to breathe steadily – exhaling slowly, then waiting for five seconds before gradually inhaling again. At least she was getting good very fast with these breathing exercises May had taught her.

Skye rarely allowed herself to think about the events that had happened in San Juan. The last few times she had tried to sort out her thoughts, the rattling of furniture had made clear that these memories were better buried deeply. It was not just the thought of her father that troubled her deeply, but also Trip's death and... Ward.

A very fine trembling of an old wooden box beside her snapped Skye out of her contemplation. Now definitely was not the time for woolgathering – especially when woolgathering had proved to be dangerous in her case. With an effort of will, she stopped the trembling and finally started walking around the abandoned warehouse.

The hall was huge and a number of shelves – some still standing, others half-collapsed – divided the warehouse into a strange kind of labyrinth. There was no way to tell what cargo had been stowed here ten years ago, all that was left were a few old and broken boxes. When Skye walked down one of the shelves, she saw that one of the boxes had been padded with newspapers and an empty plastic bottle was placed right next to it. Looking around carefully, she crouched down and peered into the box. It was empty, but she was quite sure someone had slept in there. She took a closer look at the newspaper that had been used as padding and noted that it dated back only three days. Someone had been here not long ago.

Cautiously, she took another surreptitious glance around, but all was quiet. All she could hear was a faint whistling sound from the wind blowing through some of the broken windows.

"May," Skye whispered into her comms, "someone has been here not long ago. It might be our target. I'll go and check the exits of this place. Has Bobbi already identified our gifted?"

So far, they only had a personal description of the pyro-kinetic, which was pretty nondescript: male, in his late twenties, middle height, dark hair, brown eyes. The only thing that stood out had been a rather large scar running from the left corner of his mouth down to his jaw. They had neither name nor other details about him, which was why Bobbi was running the description and a rather blurry surveillance cam photo through different computer programs in the hopes of identifying their target.

There was a long pause, before Skye heard May's voice through the comms, "...Skye? Could... repeat...? Connection... breaking off... Wait..."

"Damn it!" Skye cursed quietly, tapping her ear a few times. "May? Can you hear me now? Something is messing with our signal."

"Trouble with your comms?" a familiar voice spoke right behind her.

Skye whirled around and came almost face-to-face with Ward. Her arms came up in a defensive move all on their own, but he was already taking a few steps back to lean casually against a shelf.

"Never turn your back on the enemy, huh?" he remarked, his voice completely flat. "I learned my lesson, sure, but it looks like you haven't mastered that part yet, _rookie_."

Skye just stared at him, too stunned for the moment to speak. He looked different than when she had last seen him: his hair had grown back a bit, but he was gaunt and pale. _Guess that's what you look like after getting shot in the back four times,_ her mind told her. She had wondered once or twice if she had killed him, but – though she had no idea why – that thought had bothered her too much, so she had forced herself to think of something else.

Finally finding her voice, Skye answered scathingly, "I'm not your rookie anymore, Ward." Then a realization hit her and she added with a scowl, "I guess it's your fault my connection broke off?"

He smirked shortly and made a show of shrugging nonchalantly, but he obviously did not put too much effort in it to get it across convincingly. His eyes remained steely and Skye could not help but notice that they were sunken deeply into their sockets and were encircled by shadows. The shrug was more a threat than anything else, because she could see a weapon stowed under his black leather jacket and his hands never strayed far away from it. There was no doubt he would be quicker in drawing his gun than she with her own weapons that were strapped to both her sides.

For the first time since Ward had turned out to be playing for team Hydra, she felt threatened by him. There had always been a warmth in his eyes, reserved solely for her, and even though the same warmth had creeped her out in the past, it had also made her feel rather safe around him. Now his eyes remained completely cold and it unsettled her.

"I thought you had learned your lesson when it comes to stalking me, Ward. Didn't I tell you this always ends badly for you?" she asked him with a fake smile, in an attempt to override the dread that had taken hold of her. The empty plastic bottle that was on the ground right beside her began shaking slightly, beating an almost inaudible staccato on the ground.

Ward immediately noticed. His eyes flew to the bottle, then back to her. Something in his eyes changed, a slight widening of his pupils. It was impossible, truly impossible, but she was sure he somehow _knew_! Skye desperately tried to stop the shaking. Her powers were too volatile to be of any use in a fight, all she could do was bury them all under rubble, but nothing was gained with that. In the worst case, she would destroy the nearby town, too, because she could not control it.

"What makes you think I'm here because of you?" he asked, but his eyes were not on her, but on the bottle that slowly stopped trembling.

"Yes, silly me, why would I think that?" Skye replied in an exaggeratedly mocking voice, trying to keep his attention on her and not on the plastic bottle. "I don't know. You tell me. Maybe it has something to do with you being a creeper and the way you keep popping up in my life. You're a sick and deluded son of a bitch if you still think I want to have anything to do with you. How can I get any clearer than putting four rounds into you? Didn't that hurt enough to stay away from me?"

Ward's eyes darkened and he fixed her with a stare that instinctively made her want to shy away from his gaze.

"It hurt enough," he answered flatly, "and still does. I was coughing up blood for days and the ribs have yet to stop crunching when I move. I almost died. Hope that makes you happy. So yeah, you were clear enough for me to understand that you won't tolerate me close to you, not even when I want to help you."

Skye had a hard time to keep herself from biting her lips. No matter how often she told herself that she hated him, she could not enjoy the thought of him suffering from the wounds she had inflicted. It was a weakness she had to conquer. She was pretty sure that May would be smiling if she heard about Ward spitting blood.

"Then why are you here?" she asked quietly, all the fight and anger gone from her voice. She suddenly felt tired. Why was her whole life such a mess? Leaving everything behind her and sleeping for a week sounded so tempting right now. Maybe she should just rob a bank and spend the rest of her life on a beach on Hawaii, sipping cocktails with little umbrellas in it.

"Not because of you," Ward replied tersely, slowly drawing his weapon, but not pointing it at her. "Make both of us happy and walk out of here without a fight. I'll never give you any trouble again and I won't bother you with my presence any longer."

Skye could hear an underlying bitterness in his voice that she was unfamiliar with. He sounded almost as tired as she felt and though she wanted to believe him, she found herself immediately wondering about his true intentions. All he had ever done was lying, to everyone. Nothing had been real, he was nothing but layers and more layers of lies piled upon a persona he had created to fool them all. There was no trusting him and she had sworn herself to never make that mistake again.

"I don't believe you," she spit out through gritted teeth, some of her anger returning.

"Alright," he replied, almost nonchalantly, the smug mask slipping back in place. He slowly lifted his weapon and pointed it straight at her chest. "You don't have to believe me. Just get out of here or I'll shoot you."

Something in Skye's chest gave a funny twist and she found herself staring at him incredulously. He looked and sounded dead serious. His eyes were hard as slate and his finger was resting on the trigger. Damn it, he wasn't bluffing! He was truly threatening her. Which meant that he was telling the truth, he was not here because of her. But why then?

She was suddenly struck by a thought and blurted out, "You're after the target!"

There was no outward reaction on his face to her statement, but his stillness lasted a millisecond too long, now that Skye was trained what to look for. She immediately knew she was right.

"None of your business," he snarled in reply and closed in on her to disarm her, quickly finding the two pistols – an ICEr and a regular gun – and one knife she kept on her. Skye kept still while his hands patted roughly over her body and she realized that she had hit home with her statement. That was why she had suddenly been deemed a threat by Ward and needed to be disarmed.

"What are you going to do with the gifted?" she asked while Ward had her walking in front of him and towards the exit with the barrel of his gun pressed into her back. "Handing him over to your Hydra friends? Are they paying you a bounty for every gifted you deliver to them? Or are you just killing him for fun? Long time no kill – let's hunt some freaks?"

She knew she was goading him and the way his pistol was biting into her back with more force than necessary told her she had succeeded in riling him up.

"Just move," he ordered flatly.

They had almost reached the broken window Skye had used as an entry when a crash in the back of the warehouse made them both tense. Skye could feel the barrel of Ward's gun move away from her back and point loosely in the direction of the noise. This was it, her chance. Even as her right elbow slammed back in his ribs, she hoped that he still at least had some reservations about killing her, which made her the only one even daring to hope to get the better of him while he still held a gun. A pained grunt told her that she had hit home (bless him for telling her his ribs were still not fully healed), but no shot was fired, which made her realize she had not hoped in vain. In a well-practiced move, she knocked the gun out of his hand while he was slowed down by the pain and then she reached for the hem of his jeans where he had tucked away the weapons he had taken from her. Just as she grabbed the handle of one of the guns, he recovered enough to roughly push her away from him. Skye flailed back a few steps, then quickly lifted her reconquered weapon just to see Ward do exactly the same with her other gun. It took her only a moment to realize she had gotten hold of the ICEr, while he held her regular gun. Damn it!

Facing one another, their stances mirrored each other perfectly, which made Skye flash back to one of their first weapon training when Ward had shown her where to plant her feet, how to hold her shoulders and so forth. She would never have guessed back then that she would one day use everything he had taught her against him.

"You're pushing your luck, Skye," he growled, his breathing heavier than usual. It made her realize, together with her success in getting away from him, that he was anything but in peak condition. He was clearly still recovering from the wounds she had inflicted. So why was he even here? This must be important to him, somehow.

"Yeah?" she questioned cockily. "Seems like it worked perfectly."

"I will pull the trigger," Ward warned her, "if you don't walk away right now."

Skye believed him, but then she was rather sure he would not aim to kill. He would try to incapacitate her, nothing more. Problem was that her ICEr was working too slowly. If she shot him now, he would have time to shoot her in return before he passed out. Stupid standoff.

"Why are you here?" she asked again, trying to gain time. May was certainly on her way, maybe Skye could hold him off long enough for her S.O. to get here. "Why risking a fight when you're not up to it?"

His gun never wavered away from her while he stared at her for a long time and then answered simply, "You wouldn't understand."

Now _that_ answer took her aback.

"Try me," she replied haughtily.

Ward stared at her, his whisky-colored eyes shining almost too brightly in the sparse light. His lips opened slightly, as if he had finally decided to answer her, when the comm in her ear suddenly flickered back alive.

"Skye?" she heard Bobbi's urgent voice. "Listen, Fitz is trying to stabilize our connection and override the signal that is blocking our comms. Can you hear me? If you can hear me, then get out of the warehouse, it's too dangerous there for you! We were able to identify our gifted: His name is Thomas Ward." There was a slight pause before she added, "He's Ward's younger brother!"

_-tbc-_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks so much for reading and supporting this fic! Special thanks goes to my lovely reviewers 77Flarefox77, NikiD3195, SparkyGirl123, Mikki Danielson, Guest, icewitch73 and VJ Payton!_

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"_We were able to identify our gifted: His name is Thomas Ward._ _He's Ward's younger brother!"_

Bobbi's voice was still ringing in her ear and Skye found herself reeling from this newest information. Ward's brother was here in the warehouse? She looked right at Ward while she still pointed her ICEr at him and he in turn threatened her with the regular gun. His face was closed off, completely unreadable to her. Nevertheless, there was only one possible explanation as to why he was here: He was trying to complete his goal of hunting down every single member of his family.

"Your brother?" she finally choked out, fixing Ward with a stare. "You want to put down your own brother? You really won't stop till the last of your family is eradicated! God, you're such a monster, Ward, I knew I'd soon regret not putting that last bullet in your head."

He remained infuriatingly calm in the face of her outburst. His eyes shone with something akin to regret, but he held her gaze steadily. A weary sigh heaved from his chest, when he finally tried to answer, "Oh, Skye..."

He suddenly paused mid-sentence and tilted his head to the side, as if listening intently. Just as she started to wonder what had made him stop, she saw May immerge from behind one of the shelves, her gun pointing at Ward. Which meant that he was now outnumbered two to one. True, Skye still only pointed an ICEr at him, but it would be nothing short of suicidal if he thought he could take out both of them. Since his own weapon was still pointed at her, he would be dead before he even tried to move his gun one inch into the direction of May.

"Drop your weapon, Ward," the female agent ordered icily. "I hope you enjoyed your short trip into freedom and sunshine, because I'm rather sure that's the last you've seen of both for a very, _very_ long time."

Ward was watching her out of the corner of his eyes and Skye could practically see him weighing his options. It seemed like he was definitely past his suicidal phase because he finally let his weapon drop to the ground.

"Good choice," May commented, then nodded shortly in Skye's direction before she approached him slowly. "Skye, knock him out."

Her finger started pulling back the trigger, when an unfamiliar voice stopped her.

"No! Leave him be!"

Skye immediately swung her gun around toward the voice and saw a young man jump from one of the shelves. Fire was springing from both of his hands that he held up and away from his body, illuminating his face like a halo. She could make out boyish features under a mop of dark, unruly hair. He had the same straight nose and brown eyes as Ward (maybe she should start calling him Grant, since Ward kind of left the field open for both of them), but where Ward's (Grant's!) face was angular, his younger brother's features were smoother and softer. There was no doubt that he had inherited his own fair share of good genes, at least superficially. If there had not been that ugly scar running from the left corner of his mouth down to his jaw, he could have sprung out of one of these renaissance paintings of young men with angelic faces, which Skye had seen in books back then in St. Agnes.

"Get away from my brother," the younger Ward spoke slowly, voice steady and clear.

"Thomas," May began calmly. "Your brother is a murderer and a criminal. We got to take him in. You, however, you've done nothing wrong. We just want to talk to you and ask if you need help. S.H.I.E.L.D. only has your best interest at heart."

"You think I've done nothing wrong?" Thomas asked, eyes blazing. "You've got no idea, lady, I..."

"Shut up, Tommy," Grant suddenly cut in and the affection that Skye heard in just that small nickname – though paired with a rather rude order – took her aback. "And you, May, please shut up as well and cut the holy S.H.I.E.L.D. crap. I'm rather sure Donnie Gill says thank you for talking to him, from the ground of the ocean."

The mentioning of Donnie Gill, her first killing, raised the hair on her arms and Skye felt her pulse speed up. The clinking of glass behind her told her that she needed to get her feelings back under control, quickly. No one seemed to take notice, so she decided she needed to vent her anger and her pent-up feelings somewhere else. As always, Grant was a good target for that.

"Since when are you the defender of the gifted, Ward?" she spat, glaring at him angrily. "You're gunning them down without asking any questions! It was you telling me to take the shot before even weighing options!"

"No, that's not what I said!" he replied forcefully and the resentment in his voice took her aback. "That's your problem, Skye, you aren't listening. Not weighing any options, that's what _Hydra_ does. I told you so many times I've never been loyal to Hydra, but I could as well talk to the wall."

This answer and the demeaning way he said it was too much for Skye. Anger heated her cheeks and she felt herself tremble and with her a good part of the warehouse. God, his gall!

"Shut up, Ward!" she hissed and tightened her grip around the ICEr in her hands. "I'm so sick of your lies and the way you try to talk yourself out of the terrible things you did. I don't care who you're loyal to in the rotten core you call your heart! I don't care why you're a lying bastard!"

She glared at him and watched Grant's eyes blaze in return. Good, at least he had dropped the I-only-want-to-help-you charade. She lifted her ICEr to finally knock him out, when his little brother suddenly stepped in front of him. Whereas just seconds ago only his palms had been sprouting fire, he was now fully ablaze. The sudden heat hit her face and Skye recoiled a few steps, but Thomas immediately advanced on her.

After that, everything happened very quickly. From the corners of her eyes, she saw May aiming her pistol – not an ICEr – at the gifted and she knew at once that her S.O. would take the shot to protect her. Out of nowhere, Grant lunged himself at May and the weapon discharged, the bullet flying harmlessly over their heads. The two were still grappling with each other, but right then, another heat wave hit Skye and made her retreat some more.

"Thomas," she tried to talk calmly to the younger Ward, but she could hardly see his face in the blaze that surrounded him. "Please, be reasonable. We're not going to hurt you. Let us talk. Just because your brother did some bad things doesn't mean you'll be held accountable for his crimes. We know you're not the same..."

"You know nothing!" Thomas shouted back, his voice sounding strangely disembodied. "Grant is trying to protect me. From you! From S.H.I.E.L.D.!"

He lifted his hands and a jet of fire shot towards her, making Skye leap away a few steps. A wooden box right behind her went up in flames, making her swallow hard. This was quickly getting out of hand.

"It's my fault my brother went through hell back then," the younger Ward added in a voice that was slightly calmer. "The least I can do is try to protect him in return."

Having said that, Thomas lifted both his arms and Skye could see two more fireballs forming. There was a shelf right behind her and he was now so close that she was sure he would not miss this time. At least she still got her ICEr. Without hesitation, she brought it up and shot him, right on the forehead. The flames on his body went out immediately and she could see the look of surprise on his boyish features just before he collapsed.

"I hope that helps you cool down," Skye murmured to herself just before she whipped around to see what became of May and the older Ward.

She saw Grant flipping her S.O. off his body and there was a sickening crunch as May struck her head on the concrete floor. Skye brought her ICEr up at once, but before she could pull the trigger, she already looked down the barrel of Grant's gun. Again.

He was more than fifty feet away from her, but there was no way he would miss his target. Behind him, May lay unmoving. Worry bubbled up in Skye, but there was nothing she could do. It was too far away to see if she was still breathing, but Skye knew that her S.O. was tough. She had survived worse than this.

"You shot him?" Grant asked incredulously, steadily advancing on her, his eyes darting to the unconscious form of his brother.

"He was about to roast me alive!" Skye retorted – and why the hell did she feel the need to justify herself? "At least now I know that the homicidal streak runs in the family."

Grant shot her a contemptuous look, before he kneeled down beside his brother to feel his pulse.

"He isn't like that," he replied quietly. "He isn't like _me_. You scared him and he had some negative experience with governmental agencies, that's all. Don't judge him for my crimes."

The caring undertone in his voice and actions took Skye aback. His hand was still resting on his brother's throat and she thought she could see worry and regret in his eyes. Grant almost seemed... human right now.

That was when she forced her thoughts to stop. This was _Grant Ward_ she was contemplating right now. He always had an angle and she would not put it past him to exploit his own brother for his plans.

"Yeah, right," she sneered. "Always noble, aren't you?"

"Don't, Skye," he said wearily, still on his knees. "Let me take care of my brother and you can take May back to your team."

Her eyes flew briefly to her unconscious S.O., then wandered back to Grant. They both still had their weapons trained on each other and she knew they could continue this stand-off forever. She was itching to get to May and make sure she was alright, which meant letting Grant and his brother go.

Skye found herself hesitating. Since she had not heard from her team again, she guessed that the comm was down once more. Coulson would never forgive her if she let anything happen to May, so maybe it was time to let Grant go.

"If I let you leave," she began slowly, then was interrupted by the doors at the end of the warehouse banging open. Armed forces barged in and orders were barked. It took the soldiers only a moment to notice the three of them and they immediately opened fire. Skye's training took over and she found herself taking cover behind the shelves while bullets flew over her head. Hydra was here. Once again, she let herself be fooled by Ward. Damn it.

"We have to go," his voice suddenly spoke right beside her and when she whipped around, she could see that he had taken cover right beside her, his brother slung over his shoulder.

"We?" she snapped. "Seems like your buddies arrived."

"They're not my buddies," he replied, his tone exasperated. "If they catch us, they'll kill us. All of us."

He briefly tilted his head towards the unconscious form of his brother, then looked right back at her. His dark eyes – the ones she used to dream of a lifetime ago – shone brightly and there was something in them that begged her to believe her. Even before she had learned that he was a traitor, she had thought that his face was often unreadable, like a mask. Now that he was right beside her, there was not even a trace of that mask to be seen. A myriad of emotions played out on his face, she could easily make out worry, exasperation, alarm and even fear. It made him seem human. Not a robot, not an action figure, not a traitor, just a human being in a tight spot. In a very tight spot.

"I know another way out and I got a car ready," he told her quickly, his eyes on the advancing Hydra agents. "I can get us out of here."

Skye eyed him intently, then ducked some more when a bullet whizzed narrowly past her head. They could not stay here long, she needed to make a decision.

"What about May..." she began hesitantly, her eyes flying back to the body of her S.O. still lying on the ground in the open.

"Coulson's got her," Grant replied reassuringly.

What? Skye looked back and suddenly noticed that Coulson, Bobby and Hunter had entered the building and had grabbed May under heavy fire and were pulling back already.

"We got to help them!" she almost yelped.

"Hydra's too strong!" Grant replied. "We can't get to them. We're five, they're more than thirty."

Skye saw that he was right. Hydra was cutting them off from joining forces. Her team was already leaving the warehouse and part of the armed forces were following them. Her training told her that this was a hopeless situation, there was nothing else to do but pull back and regroup later.

_If_ Ward told the truth and this was not part of one of his ploys.

"Skye," Grant's voice sounded urgent in her ear. "We got to get out of here. You can either come with me or fight your own way back, but I'm leaving _now_! I promise, no I _swear_ I won't harm you."

She looked back at him and thought she saw honesty in his eyes. But she had believed him before, trusted him with her life...

"Dammit!" he finally muttered while she was still hesitating, then turned around to leave. "Good luck. Maybe we'll see each other in another life."

Just like that, he left her crouching behind the shelf all by herself and slunk to the back of the warehouse, with his brother still slung over his shoulder. That was when she finally made up her mind. Quietly, she followed him.

"I'll cover your back," she told him when she had caught up to him.

He shot her a quick look, before he made sure the next row of shelves was clear, then muttered, "I'd actually feel safer if you handed me that gun."

Somehow that comment stung and Skye felt her cheeks reddening.

"No way," she hissed back. "I'm not coming with you unarmed."

In that moment one of the Hydra agent rounded the corner of their shelf and Skye lost no time to shoot him in the chest.

"Hurry!" she urged and not a moment later they were sprinting the rest of the way towards a small door at the end of the warehouse.

Bullets rained down all around them, but luckily enough, none of them hit home. Grant kicked the door open and Skye followed him not a moment later. She was relieved to find that no more Hydra forces waited for them outside. On the other hand, there was no sign of S.H.I.E.L.D. either. A small part of her had hoped that she would see Coulson and the team waiting for her. It was a stupid hope, they probably had enough to deal with on their own. She just hoped they were alright.

"Get in!" Ward shouted, laying down his brother on the backseat of a Ford Taurus that was parked right outside the warehouse.

Skye thought shortly about trying to make her own way back to her team, but when the Hydra agents started pouring out of the door, she quickly jumped into the passenger seat of the car.

"Give me your ICEr," Ward told her calmly, stretching out his hand.

Skye stared at him, then back at the Hydra agents aiming at them. The engine of the car was running, but they were still standing. Why the hell wasn't he taking off already?

"No way," she replied forcefully and kept a solid grip on the weapon in her hand.

"I'm not leaving before you give me your gun," he told her, the unreadable mask once again in place. "I told you I'm not going to hurt you. I'm doing this for the safety of my brother and myself, I can't have you knock me out while I'm driving."

Bullets were hitting the car and Skye ducked instinctively. Luckily enough, the glass seemed to be bullet proof, but she could already make out the cracks in the back window.

"You're going to get us all killed!" she shouted at him. "And no, I'm not handing over my weapon, because I don't trust you!"

"Well, surprise, I don't trust you either!" he yelled back in a rare show of emotion.

The outburst surprised her, but then again, she had to confess she had thought about shooting him as soon as they were out of the danger zone. Bullets still hailed down on them and it was just a matter of time before the car would be too damaged to drive at all.

Skye looked at Ward and he glared back at her. Finally, she shoved the weapon into his hands. He finally took off and just a few seconds later they were already clear of their enemies.

"Thank you," he said quietly and looked at her briefly. "And sorry."

Before she even had the time to think about the reason why he was apologizing, she felt a hard impact on her thigh and then, just a moment later, the world turned dark.

_-tbc-_


	3. Chapter 3

_A huge thank you to my wonderful reviewers: 77Flarefox77, nedda-modena, Maddison1803 and icewitch73! _

_I know I said at the beginning that this story will only be about three chapters long. Well, there'll at least be another chapter. Too many things that I still want to address! :-) Sooo, there's definitely more to come!_

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Skye woke up gasping.

There was a thought nagging in the back of her head, something that she should remember. The rhythmic pounding behind her eyes did not make thinking any easier. Beneath her, she could feel the softness of a mattress and when she looked around, she saw that she was in a small and simple bedroom. The walls were entirely made of wood and each and every one of the uneven planks hang askew. There was no single right angle to be found in the room. It looked like it had been built by someone who definitely was not a professional architect or house builder.

Skye tried to get up, but then immediately noticed that she was tied to the bed. What the hell...? The rush of adrenaline that followed this realization instantly brought her memories back.

Ward.

It was not so much fear or trepidation, but anger that filled her, when she thought about his latest treachery. When would she finally learn not to trust him? He had ICEd her in the car and now she was entirely at his mercy. Her team had no chance to ever find her, let alone help her out of this situation.

The avalanche of emotions that followed this realization made the small table beside her bed rattle. She had been so foolish to trust him! And here she was and all that was left was her stupid powers that only served to make the situation worse, but they would not help her get out of this mess. The fury and helplessness that crashed over her made it suddenly appear tempting to bring the house down, just because she could and because that would definitely piss off Ward. If she was lucky, he might be hit by a falling piece of wood or something.

"Ward!" she yelled lividly, tugging uselessly at her bonds while the room shook madly all around her. "Come here, you backstabbing bastard! At least have the decency to show yourself!"

There was a small pause in which she only heard the rattling of furniture and saw dust rippling down from the ceiling. Then, a moment later, the door opened.

"Jesus, girl, stop that," a mild voice told her and when Skye lifted her head, she saw that it was not the older but the younger Ward that had entered the room. "Grant isn't here right now. He told me you might be angry, which is why he left the ICEr with me. Even though I have no idea how to use it."

Thomas, now completely without flames, looked a bit forlornly at the ICEr in his hands, then back up at her. A small smile tugged at his lips and it enhanced the boyish air around him. Skye suddenly realized that he was probably only a year or two older than she was. He was not only younger than Ward, but also quite a bit smaller and definitely tended towards lanky. Now that he was not ablaze, there was nothing threatening to him.

"Please stop the shaking," he asked her, eyes turning big when an exceptionally forceful quake hit the room and he stretched out a hand against the wall to keep himself upright.

Skye realized that the shaking got slowly worse and the more she tried to keep it in check, the more it got out of hand. Her powers seemed to have a will of their own. Control slipped her grasp and made her frantic.

"I don't know how," she stuttered, looking desperately at Thomas.

"Okay, try and calm down," he instructed her evenly and freed her from her restraints with one clean cut of a knife. Skye struggled to get to a sitting position and more felt than saw Thomas sitting down beside her.

"I know it's terrifying when your powers take over," he told her slowly, but refrained from touching her. "The rage they put you in is horrible. For me, screaming sometimes helps. Try screaming, but scream with your voice and your body, not with your feelings and your powers or you'll definitely bring the house down!"

Skye stared at him out of big eyes. The rattling around her was so bad by now that one of the ceiling planks had come down. Without thinking, she started screaming, a high and shrill sound coming from the depth of her chest. She tried to head Thomas' advice, concentrating on the physical aspect of screaming. She screamed until there was no more air in her lungs and when she stopped to breathe, she noticed that the quake had lessened.

"Good," Thomas told her soothingly. "Now breathe. Get the rest of it out of your system, calmly."

They breathed silently for minutes and slowly the trembling stopped, leaving Skye feeling completely exhausted. At the same time, she could not help the small smile of triumph she felt bubbling up inside her. This was the first time she had been able to control her powers when they had evolved into full action. Without knocking herself out, that is. This meant that it _was_ possible after all!

"Thanks," she muttered, still somewhat shakily. The smile that Thomas gave her in return was nothing short of brilliant and Skye could not help but wonder for a moment if his older brother had the capacity to smile like that as well.

"You're welcome," Thomas replied easily. "And I'm sorry I threatened you back in the warehouse. I was tired, hungry and scared and thought you might kill my brother. The fire and flames... whenever that starts, I become... different. The fire wakes up an urge in me to burn everything down and it's sometimes difficult not to follow that impulse."

He gave a slightly awkward, one-shouldered shrug and Skye had – for the first time in weeks – the feeling that someone actually knew what she was going through. Her powers had a life of their own, too. Yes, she could start the trembling willingly, but anger and panic usually took over so that she was unable to stop it again.

"You have your powers for a long time already?" she asked him quietly and noticed that he had placed the ICEr on the small nightstand beside her bed, in easy reach of her. That carelessness told her that there was definitely a difference between him and his brother. Skye thought about grabbing the ICEr and fleeing, but as long as Thomas did not make any move towards it, she could maybe get some long-desired answers.

"Since I was a kid," he replied evenly. "Though I used them only once before reaching adulthood, and it was such a disaster that I didn't use them in years. But now I know that it's definitely better to learn and control them than to repress them."

A million questions pushed themselves to the forefront of Skye's mind, making the headache she had from the ICEr worse. She brought a hand to her forehead and started rubbing gently.

"Headache?" Thomas asked quietly. "Grant told me you might have a headache. He said drinking a lot of water helps to get over it sooner."

"How considerate of him," Skye replied, her voice turning icy.

Thomas gave her a rueful look, then got up, before he said, "I know your history with my brother isn't the best. He hasn't told me much, but I have eyes and I can see that you're hurting each other." He stopped, then changed the topic and asked with a hopeful grin, "You want tea or water?"

Not for the first time in such a short time Skye found herself taken aback by the open and innocent nature of Thomas Ward. He was in this regard so very different from his brother that she somehow found herself trusting him, even though her mind told her again and again that this was a _Ward_. However, she could see that he was untrained and he moved carelessly to the door, the ICEr lying forgotten on her nightstand. When he turned his back to her, she quickly grabbed the ICEr and stuffed it in the back of her pants. There was no reason to be careless herself.

Nevertheless, she decided to follow him into the small kitchen that was just next to the room in which she had woken up. Only now she could see that this was some kind of cabin. There was one window and the only thing she could see outside was trees. If she had to guess, she would say that she was in the middle of nowhere.

"Tea or water?" Thomas asked again and motioned for her to sit down at the table.

"Tea would be great, thanks," she replied and hesitantly sat down on the chair. She watched Thomas busy himself with the water boiler and inconspicuously looked around the room. The door was made of wood, too, but there was no way to tell if it was locked or not.

"You're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, aren't you?" he asked almost shyly and brought the kettle with the steaming tea to the table, then went to fetch two cups.

Skye felt herself frowning at that. Could it really be that Grant had kept his brother in the dark about her? Thomas might be lying. However, when Skye watched him intently, she could detect nothing that could indicate that he was playing a double game.

"Maybe," she finally replied slowly, still watching out for any telltale signs of lying or treachery. There were none. "What exactly _do_ you know? Are you working for Hydra, too?"

"What?" Thomas asked, dumbfounded. "Me...? I... No! I don't even..." He forcefully stopped his ramblings, took a deep breath, then looked at her intently. "Look, I know my brother has been part of this whole spy-thing business and I know that he pissed off pretty much everyone around him. I found out about Hydra the way everyone else did: Through the news! I'm a bookseller, alright?"

Skye could tell that she made him nervous with her scrutinizing stare (thanks, May), but other than that, she could detect nothing suspicious in his behavior. Either he was really telling the truth or he was a pretty damn good spy himself.

"So you had no idea your brother is working for Hydra?" she questioned him with narrowed eyes.

"No!" he exclaimed, running a hand through his dark and longish hair. "Skye... can I call you Skye? Grant didn't tell me your last name."

"Skye's fine," she replied coolly.

"Alright, Skye," he tried again. "Until Grant was branded publicly as a Hydra traitor by my oldest brother Christian, I hadn't even known he had been working for S.H.I.E.L.D. Hell, I thought for years that he was dead! I last heard from him when he was fifteen. I only knew he was alive when I heard Christian talking in the news."

"You don't really talk much in your family, do you?" she stated, raising her eyebrows.

Thomas sighed, then ran a hand across his face. Skye could not help but notice that he stopped his motion shortly before reaching the ugly scar on the left side of his mouth and skin, as if that wound still pained him.

"No, we don't," he answered grimly. "And that's completely fine by me, thanks very much. The less they're in my life, the better. All they ever did was tear me down."

These words somehow rang familiar and it took a few seconds for her to remember that these were almost the same words that Grant spoke to her when he was still being kept in the basement of the Playground.

"There's one thing I don't get," Skye began slowly, fixing Thomas with another hard stare. "If you're just an unknowing, upright civilian that has no connection to Hydra at all and if you thought that your brother was dead for years, how can it be that you still trust him? For all you know he's a complete stranger to you now."

For the first time during this 'interrogation', Thomas met her gaze unflinchingly. There was even a small smile playing around his lips.

"Grant saved me," he explained simply. "More times than I can count. I wouldn't be here without him."

The conviction and adoration in his voice took Skye aback.

"What did he do?" she asked carefully. "You know, it's funny that you say he saved you, because he told me stories about you and your oldest brother. Grant told me he used to be the one beating you up. I don't know about you, but this doesn't count as saving in my eyes."

Thomas kept quiet for a moment, then replied, "That's true. Grant beat me up and I used to hate him for that. You know, I was mother's favorite. She used to call me her little angel. The more she pampered me, the worse got the beatings from my brothers and the angry silence from my sister. But only as I got older I realized that Grant was scared himself."

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath, before he continued, "Christian made him do it. He was a cruel and manipulative bastard and my parents weren't an inch better. Grant took the brunt of it all. At least I had my parents' protection. Grant, however, he didn't have anything, he was completely on his own. He was often beaten up himself and was forced by Christian to hurt me. So many times my parents caught him hitting me, and he didn't dare to tell them it was actually Christian behind all of it. My parents used to lock Grant in a room for days without any food or water as punishment."

Skye listened to Thomas telling his story. As it seemed, Grant had not lied about everything, back on the Bus. Though she told herself to be cautious, to not just believe everything she heard, she still found herself horrified, somewhere deep down. She had been sure for months that Grant had just made up that sob story about his family to win her trust. Seemed like this was not the case.

Thomas sighed, staring off into space. "Grant was scared himself, I realized that when I was about seven. Let's say that from that time we started to have some great moments when it was just the two of us. He started rebelling against Christian and it all culminated when Christian made him throw me into a well." Thomas paused again and scratched his chin, then continued, "After that, Grant started to change. He took the beatings from Christian, but he never lay another finger on me ever again. He started losing weight and..."

"Whoah, wait," Skye interrupted him, frowning. "Why would he lose weight?"

Thomas sheepishly looked at his hands, then up at her again.

"Hell, Grant will hate me for saying this, but... he was rather chubby as a kid."

Skye could not help herself. She was staring. Openmouthed.

"No way! You're making fun of me!"

Shaking his head slightly, Thomas replied seriously, "No, I'm not. He was that overweight kid who read all the time and was scared of pretty much everything. The dark, the woods, animals..."

That picture collided so sharply with everything she knew about Grant Ward that her mind could simply not accept what she heard.

"Come on, now you're pulling my leg," she tried again, but only half-heartedly. "Action figure Grant Ward was never chubby or afraid of the dark."

"He wasn't always like he is now," Thomas answered her somberly. "He was shy, withdrawn and gentle. What you see now is what my family made him to be. And a large part of that change took place because he tried to protect me. As I said, he started to work out, fought back, practiced throwing stones with a slingshot he made himself..."

Sighing internally, Skye listened to the change that Grant had undergone. There still was no way to tell if Thomas told the truth, but it all sounded very sincere. It was a different picture that the younger Ward presented of his brother. What if his childhood really messed him up so bad that he had finally been susceptible to joining Hydra?

That thought somehow nagged at her. Then again, what about his countless crimes? The old anger that was always luring just under the surface whenever she thought about Ward reared back up again. Yeah, maybe he had had a shitty childhood, but that was long in the past. He had had his chance to change, but had not taken it.

"Stop," she told Thomas harshly, who was still going on about his brother's so-called heroic deeds. "I've heard enough. You know what? I had a shitty childhood, too, I grew up in an orphanage and spent a good part of my adult years in a van. And you know what? I haven't joined a Nazi organization or betrayed my team and I haven't killed countless people. Thomas, you're brother is not a good man, no matter what good memories you have of him."

She paused and watched the younger Ward stare at her out of wide eyes, then a thought struck her and she added forcefully, "Wake up, Thomas! He isn't the innocent lamb you make him out to be. And hell, even you should know he wasn't like that back then, either. He burned down your damn house because he wanted to kill your brother!"

"That wasn't him!" Thomas suddenly yelled and Skye saw flames flicker alive on the back of his hands that gripped the table tightly. "It was me! _I_ burned down that house! _I_ wanted to kill Christian!"

Skye looked at him in shock. With every harsh rise of his chest, the flames on his hands grew bigger. She got up in one move and played with the idea of drawing her ICEr. But then this conversation was definitely over. There were still things about the nature of her powers that she had wanted to ask him, so she left her ICEr where it was.

"Calm down, Thomas," she said to him. "Calm down and tell me what you mean. You don't make any sense to me."

He sent her a wild look out of eyes that were almost completely black. His teeth were bared and he looked ready to throw himself at her at any moment now. The flames were still dancing on the back of his hands and Skye found herself astonished at the fact that the skin beneath the flames was undamaged. Thomas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, then the flames grew smaller under Skye's stunned gaze and then eventually went out.

"I burned the house down, with my powers," he began slowly and he buried his face in the hands that had just moments ago sprouted fire. "My powers were new back then and I was so very angry. Grant took the blame because he wanted to protect me. He was the only one who knew about my powers and he wanted to keep them a secret, so I wouldn't have to live as a freak. Don't you understand? He took the blame for me. He didn't do anything."

Skye listened with growing disbelief. This was definitely news to her and put everything in perspective again. Shortly after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. she had learned about Ward's time in juvie. Back then, it had all made sense. He was rotten to the core, since his youth. Trying to kill a member of his family was proving that. Now, she found herself hesitating. There was no reason why Thomas would be lying about something like that. What was the meaning of all of this?

The sound of the door opening made her whirl around.

"Well, well," Grant Ward drawled, door handle still in hand. "Look who's up. Hello Skye. I hope Tommy behaved himself."

Skye felt her eyes narrowing at him. He stepped into the room and behind him, a woman entered the small cabin. Her face was full of scars and Skye could tell from just one look that she was definitely not harmless. One hand of the scarred woman went to her jacket and Skye was pretty sure she was armed.

"Of course I behaved myself," Tommy said rather cheerfully and got up to give his older brother a quick hug. Skye could not help but notice the short wince on Grant's face. "We had a talk, Skye and me. I guess she's alright."

Somehow that small comment and the light tone with which he delivered it made it difficult for Skye to be angry with him, even though she had definitely missed her chance to get out of here because she had chatted too long with him.

Grant suddenly gave her a scrutinizing look, then sighed and turned to his brother. "Tommy, you let her get the ICEr."

Surprise was written all over the younger Ward's face and he looked at her still empty hands, then back at Grant. Her ICEr was still stowed in the back of her pants and damn it, how did Ward know she had gotten hold of it?

"Did she?" Thomas asked back sheepishly.

Grant rubbed his temples. "Yes."

For a short moment Skye was remembered of the first few weeks on the bus. Back then he had been just Agent Grumpy and she had lost count of how many times she had seen him rubbing his temples and sighing in exasperation.

"But she hasn't shot me," Tommy replied rather cheerfully.

Grant looked at her before he replied evenly, "Maybe she waits until you have your back turned."

The confused look Thomas gave the both of them made Skye realize that the younger Ward had no idea that she had shot Grant. Well, at least that explained his rather friendly nature from earlier on.

"You're losing your manners, Grant," the unknown woman now put in and gave her a smile that pulled on her many scars. "I'm Kara."

Skye could not help but notice that the situation was surreal. What the hell should she do?

"I'm Skye," she then decided to answer, then narrowed her eyes at the other woman. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"We fought, before," Kara just replied dryly.

Skye stared at her confusedly, then suddenly gasped, "You're Agent 33!"

Grant clapped his hands once, then announced, "Great, now that we all know each other, could we try and not kill each other until tonight?"

He looked at Skye pointedly when he said that, making her grind her teeth angrily.

"If you think for one moment that I'm just going to be your meek prisoner, you can..."

"You're not my prisoner, Skye," he told her, annoyance already creeping back into his voice. "You can leave whenever you want. I'll have to bind your eyes, because I'm rather sure you'll lead Coulson right here, but I'm not going to hold you against your will."

"Seriously?" she spat. "You ICEd me! And when I woke up I was tied to a bed!"

"Security measures," Grant replied smoothly. "You were a danger to my brother, Kara and myself."

Skye was fuming. There was something about him that made her want to lash out.

"If it's true that you're completely honest all of a sudden," she bit out between her teeth, "then let's go right now."

Grant sighed and carefully sat down on one of the chairs. Skye could see another short wince flitter across his face. There was something weary about him. His shoulders were slumped and she noticed again the dark circles around his eyes.

"If you really want to leave now," he replied slowly, rubbing his eyes. "We'll leave. But it's a risk. It would be safer to leave tonight under the cover of darkness, which was my plan all along."

Skye eyed him intently, before Kara added meaningfully, "And Grant could do well with another few hours of rest before we set out again. That last stunt in the warehouse was definitely a bit too much."

Grant scowled at her and tried to protest, when Thomas cut in worriedly, "You're worse again? Jeez, Grant, I told you we should let a doctor look at your side, it's..."

"It's fine," the older Ward interrupted. "I'm getting better, it just needs a bit more time to heal, that's all." He paused, then looked questioningly at Skye. "When do you want to leave?"

Her eyes flitted to Thomas, then to Kara and she could clearly make out the worry in both their faces. She finally looked back to Grant and bit her lips slightly. Her thoughts were all jumbled and she felt the need to somehow get her head straight. The conversation with Thomas had confused her and she needed to sort out what to make of the things he had told her. Then there was Kara and her obvious loyalty to Grant. Was she just one of his twisted minions? But he had never had any minions before... And last she thought of Grant himself. He seemed... different. He was clearly still recovering from the wounds she had inflicted. Maybe he was really offering some sort of truce, but it was so difficult to see, beneath his many masks.

All these thoughts made her dizzy and she felt another headache coming. She needed more time to sort out her head. This was not the time for a rash decision.

"You're bringing me back to my team tonight," she finally replied, meeting Ward's gaze evenly.

"Okay," he told her, giving her a tentative nod. "Tonight it is. Keep the ICEr until then."

Then he got up and disappeared in another room, pulling the door shut behind him.

-tbc-

_Thoughts? Good? Bad? What did you think about Thomas?_

_I know there's not much Grant Ward in this chapter, but you'll see more of him in the next chapter(s)._


	4. Chapter 4

_Wow, I'm completely blown away by the number of people reviewing this story and being so nice to me! :-))) Thanks a lot!_

_Special thanks goes to Maddison1803, Patricia, EmmaJMcGhee, annavale23, 77Flarefox77, KPSF, blubo, icewitch73 and four guests!_

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While she waited in the room she had woken up for night to arrive, Skye was surprised to find herself in a state both bored and edgy. It was a strange combination that slowly drove her mad.

Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling did not help at all to sort out her thoughts. She mulled over what Thomas had told her, but she still found her mind balking at the thought of revising her judgement when it came to Grant Ward. The information she had on him was nothing short of a kaleidoscope. Maybe there was nothing _real_ behind the many masks he wore. That immediately led her to her second problem. Should she really trust him to bring her back safely to her team? And why should he do that? What was his newest scheme?

Skye still found herself playing with the idea of trying to break out and make her own way back to her team. However, she was in the middle of nowhere. How would she get back? After looking at it from every angle, she finally came to the decision to wait until the evening. If Ward told the truth, she would be back safely with her team tonight and if he had other plans, her escape would probably fail anyway, no matter how lax her supervision seemed right now. She had been left completely alone since Ward had come back.

Sighing quietly, she stopped staring holes into the ceiling and got up. She slowly opened the door and peeked out, finding the kitchen deserted. Shrugging to herself, she decided to make herself another cup of tea (there was no coffee to be found, damn it!) and poured water into the electric kettle.

She filled her cup when the water started boiling and while she let the tea steep, she saw that the door to the other room was ajar. She could hear voices talking quietly. Getting up, she moved closer and opened the cupboard next to the door, so she had a good excuse at hand (looking for sugar) if anyone came to question her eavesdropping.

"You took too many risks upon yourself by going to the warehouse all alone, Grant," she heard the woman, Kara, admonish rather gently. "You could've asked me, I would've helped you out, you know?"

There was a short pause and an almost inaudible sigh, before Skye heard Ward answer rather stiffly, "That's what I do. I get the job done. Alone."

Skye did not have to wait long for a reaction to that statement. At the same time as Thomas' voice could be heard answering indignantly, "That's what I'm to you? A _job_?", Kara replied evenly, "Bullshit."

Another pause followed and all of a sudden, Skye had to bite down on a smile. Maybe it was because she was suddenly assailed by the picture in her head of Ward rolling his eyes or remembering how annoyed he had been in the past when someone had questioned his lonely-wolf-routine.

"No, Tommy," Skye heard Grant answer through clenched teeth, "of course you're not just a job to me. And yes, Kara, I'm a spy who was trained to be the whole solution. For S.H.I.E.L.D. and for Hydra."

"Well," Kara replied matter-of-factly. "You're neither working for S.H.I.E.L.D. nor for Hydra anymore. We're a team. It's about time you get that fact in that thick skull of yours. You helped me finding my face and my identity, I'll help you out with everything else. That's how a team works."

Skye heard a snort of laughter (probably from Thomas), then Grant grumbling, "It's not that I don't..."

"Shhh," Kara shushed him, unfazed. "You'll learn eventually, I guess. Now keep still and let me work. You pulled some of those stitches. Again. Your wounds will never heal if you keep pushing yourself too hard too soon."

After that, all Skye could hear for a while was the occasional hiss from Ward that made her wince to herself. It had been five weeks, but he seemed to be still afflicted by what she had done.

"This one is infected," Kara commented and Skye could hear the frown in her voice. "It doesn't look too bad, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'm going to open the wound again, then drain it and thoroughly clean it." A pause, then she added, "Tommy, come here and lend me a hand. You clean the wound carefully when I hold it open, okay?"

"I... I don't...," Skye heard Thomas answer in a stutter. "Well... I meant to tell you... I'm not very good... with blood..."

"Boy, sit down before you fall down!" Kara ordered rather sharply.

There was a short commotion, then Grant said gently, "Take deep breaths, Tommy, that's it. You're doing fine."

"Says the one with the gaping wound on his back," the younger Ward replied feebly and in a weak attempt at humor. Skye could feel rather than hear Grant's quiet snort of affection at that.

"I can clean the wound myself, Kara," Grant then suggested. "Just give me the gauze swab."

"Don't be stupid," was the woman's no nonsense reply. "That wound is on your back. And last time I checked you didn't have eyes on the back of your head. You're only going to make this worse."

Skye pressed her forehead against the wooden cupboard beside her. The three of them sounded so normal and so familiar with each other that she felt a pang of pain in her chest when she listened to them. Since her transformation, she had missed that intimacy and easy comradeship in her own team. It was rather ironic that it was the group of bad guys that made her realize that she had lacked something for weeks now, but had never quite been able to put her finger on what it was that she lacked.

Beside that, she also could not deny that she felt guilty listening to Kara patching up Ward. Could it be that she felt some first threads of remorse? She tried to convince herself that she was simply not a fan of experiencing the suffering of others. That was all there was to it. When she pushed herself away from the cupboard and opened the door that had been standing ajar the whole time, she told herself that she did this for Thomas. Not for Grant.

"I can help," Skye offered as she stepped into the room.

Grant Ward was sitting on the edge of a bed, chest bare, while Kara kneeled behind him with a handful of bloody gauze. Thomas sat on a chair beside them, his pale face turned determinedly away from his brother and the soiled bandages. He had been staring intently at the lamp right beside him with one hand still gripping the edge of the chair he was sitting on, before he turned his wide-eyed gaze on her. Funnily enough, he was the only one who appeared surprised at her entrance, which made her suspect that Grant and Kara might have known she was there or at least reckoned with her listening in. The older Ward was frowning quite darkly at her while Kara gave her a nod and a smile.

"Good," the female agent replied lightly and motioned with her head for Skye to come closer. "I hope you're not as queasy with blood as Tommy."

As Skye approached, Grant said through clenched teeth, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"You're wrong," Kara told him. "It's a very good idea. I need another pair of hands and Skye is the only one in this room able and willing to do this without fainting."

Skye watched Grant fuming at this reply and it took a few seconds before he bit out harshly, "I'm sure there's some metaphysical law against getting patched up by the person who shot you."

To her left, Skye heard Thomas gasp.

"You did this to Grant?" the younger Ward asked disbelievingly, then buried his face in his hands. "Oh god, why does everything have to be so messed up all the time?"

"It's complicated," was all that Skye offered to Thomas, feeling all of a sudden defensive. Then she turned to Grant and tried to keep the anger in check that she felt stirring again deep down. "Look, Ward, just take my help or leave it. I'm not apologizing for shooting you. You deserved that back then. This here is something completely different, a one time thing. We somehow got caught together in a tight situation and we helped each other getting out of that situation, then we're going to part ways again. As an offer of truce, I try to help you in the meantime, that's all."

"Very good," Kara replied before Grant even had the chance to open his mouth. "Put on the gloves and come here."

Skye shot Ward another look and saw him clenching his mouth shut, but since he did not protest anymore, she decided that this was as much invitation as she would get from him. When she came closer, she could see that the front side of his torso was anything but a nice view. The two (only two?) half-healed puckered scars on his right side, about five inches below his arm pit, immediately caught her eye. Bruises covered almost the whole of his right side and it was hard to tell if they were old or new. She also could not help but notice that he was a good deal thinner than when she had last seen him and that she could now easily count his ribs.

However, it was when she saw his back that she had to stifle a gasp. There was only one mark on his back, but contrary to the two scars on his chest, this wound was gaping open with blood still oozing lazily from it. It had to be an exit wound, caused by one of the bullets she had put in him. It was hardly surprising that this was the injury that refused to heal properly, since it was badly situated just below his shoulder blade. Which meant that every move of his right arm pulled at the half-closed wound. She could also see what Kara had meant when she had spoken of infection. The surrounding area of the wound was looking red and slightly swollen.

Skye could not help but grimace slightly at the sight. Of course she knew what kind of damage a few bullets fired at someone could cause. She had heard endlessly about that in training and had seen enough action by now to be aware of that. However, it was an entirely different thing to see up close the result of something _she _had done to someone. Pulling the trigger of a gun sometimes was – in practice – something quite anonymous. When fighting against Hydra, it was often impossible to tell who had shot who in the skirmish. People ended up dead or injured, but it could as well have been the person next to you who killed someone, firing at the same time as you. In return, it was often impossible to tell which of the Hydra agents had been the one to wound or kill a team member.

This, on the other hand, was very different and much more personal. Skye knew that she was responsible for inflicting this damage on another human being, and Ward was completely aware of that, too. When she thought back to the coldness she had felt when she had pulled the trigger, she could not help the small shiver that ran up her spine. No matter the hatred and betrayal she had felt back then, _this_ was not what she had wanted. She had not wanted another human being – no matter what bad things he had done – to suffer from her actions for weeks. No one deserved that. And no matter what May would tell her about that sentiment being a weakness, she just _knew_ that her stance was the right one.

"You might want to lie down," she told him quietly, her voice sounding almost gentle with her throat feeling oddly constricted.

Grant shot her a look over his shoulder that was clearly puzzled, while Kara said, "I tried telling him that before, but he just wouldn't listen. Maybe it's a guy thing. Pretending to be all invincible and stuff..."

Kara broke off her rant when she saw Grant complying and lying down on his stomach without uttering a single word. It awfully looked like a demonstration of trust. Kara raised an eyebrow at Skye, then commented, "Oh, we have a magician among us. You might come in handy, you know."

Skye smiled slightly in return, then moved over a chair to the bedside, before she put on the gloves. When she first rested her hand on his back, close to the wound, she felt him flinch under her fingers. Though Kara was touching him, too, and Ward had his head turned away from her, he somehow knew that touch was hers, even through the gloves. It made Skye swallow, hard. She thought back to the many times she had seen him flinch when being touched unexpectedly, back on the Bus. Then she remembered what Thomas had told her before about Grant being afraid of pretty much everything and the way his family had mistreated him. She swallowed again and tried to push these things out of her mind, since she had to concentrate on the matters at hand.

Kara handed her the antiseptic and some gauze swaps, and together they set to work. The female agent opened the rest of the intact stitches and laid the wound open. Skye tried to clean it as carefully as possible, but she was unable to tune out the way Grant's back muscles tensed under her ministrations and the occasional hiss that he was unable to hold back.

"Sorry," she whispered when one of her movements made him gasp.

"s'okay," he muttered in response, the sound muffled from where his mouth was pressed into the pillow. It made Skye bite her lips.

"I don't think it's too bad," Kara stated when Skye was done with cleaning the wound and she started to close it again with needle and thread. "The infection is rather superficial. At least your lungs have healed up nicely. It'd be much worse if that infection sat in your lungs. Still, doubled dose of antibiotics for the next few days."

When Kara was done, Grant pushed himself carefully into a sitting position, wincing a bit.

"Thanks," he muttered, looking first at Kara then briefly meeting Skye's eyes. The way he was carrying himself felt off. Given that he was _the _Super Spy, he somehow projected his discomfort quite broadly right now. And she did not just mean the bodily discomfort. The way his eyes had met hers, she could not shake the feeling that she had seen something akin to shyness in his gaze. But the Grant Ward she knew had never been shy. It was as if the way he was forced to lay open his vulnerability had left him almost embarrassed. As if he was expecting someone to reprimand him for needing help. Suddenly she had a vision of a young Grant screaming for help while his oldest brother beat him and Skye had to shake her head to get rid of the thought.

"You're welcome," she replied quietly. She looked at him again, but he was clearly avoiding her gaze right now and was staring at his hands. Damn it, why did he have to look like a kicked puppy all of a sudden? It was not fair, really. She knew what he was capable off and it would take hours to name all the bad things he had done in his life, and Skye would happily oblige to spend the next week with specifying why she hated him. Still, that thing in her chest felt awfully like compassion. Before she could change her mind, she decided to add, although reluctantly, "I put these slugs into you, after all. Only proper to help cleaning up the mess I created."

All of a sudden, his expression changed completely and there was a twinkle in his eyes as he made a show to appear stunned. "Proper? Since when does the word proper even appear in your vocabulary, Skye?"

Several answers lay on Skye's tongue. Mean ones. _Since this one proper guy I liked turned out to be not so proper after all. Since you betrayed us all and took the lightness from my life. Since it is now so damn hard to trust proper people, because there is always the danger of getting hurt._ But she bit back these answers, because somehow the gap between them had been bridged a tiny little bit. As if someone had laid a straw over a mountain stream, but the straw was in danger to be carried away by water or wind at any time. Still, the tiny bridge was there and she was loath to be the one to tear it down.

"Look," Skye told him instead, schooling her face into a neutral mask. "True, I only recently made peace with the meaning of the word proper. But the way I see it, you're not really one to talk about getting familiar with concepts you used to give a wide berth before. You've got a nice little _team_ here, Ward."

The apprehension that she had seen stealing on his face when she had started answering neutrally gave way to a short twitching of the corners of his mouth. The way his eyes lit up remembered her so much of the good times they had spend together that she could physically feel the stab of pain in her chest. She easily remembered the time when lighting that spark in his eyes had been one of her primary goals. God, that felt like a lifetime ago.

Before he could respond, Kara threw in with a roll of her eyes, "Though he hasn't completely understood the meaning behind the concept yet."

Skye gave the other woman a brief smile. Not for the first time today she noticed the easy comradeship between Ward and her. Whatever the two of them had been going through must have bound them tightly together. She could not help but feel grateful for the fact that he was not completely alone.

"I know the meaning of team, Kara," Grant answered long-sufferingly, then faced Skye, turning serious. "And I've known it before. Once. But it hasn't ended well."

The truce they had struck was nothing more than a fledgling thing and Skye felt herself narrowing her eyes at him. It was definitely too early to hear Ward criticize her team. If he now went on a rant about what Coulson did wrong she would punch him in the face. But when she looked at him, there was nothing but regret in his eyes.

"It's my fault it all went to hell," he told her quietly. "And I'm sorry for it."

"Yeah, you should be sorry for that," Skye answered, serious but without any rancor. "You destroyed everything. Good men died, then... and recently."

Memories rushed her. She thought about Trip and the pain of his loss felt suddenly so strong that she could feel the chair shaking beneath her. Breathing deeply, she managed to get her powers under control, but looking up at Ward's eyes, filled with sorrow, let her emotions rear back up again. She did not know why, but looking at him made the pain worse and she suddenly knew that she could not deal with that right now.

Without another word, she got up and fled from the room.

_-tbc-_

_Thoughts? Good? Bad? Is the start of reconciliation coming too quickly?_

_I know it's a rather short chapter, but maybe – with the Easter holidays – I'll get to update again before next weekend. Yeah, this isn't the last chapter, either... :-)_


	5. Chapter 5

_A big Thank You to my lovely and steadfast reviewers, you're the best! Special thanks to MythStar Black Dragon, Maddison1803, annavale23, EmmaJMcGhee, Aurelia99, 77Flarefox77, icewitch73 and nedda-modena! You're awesome! _

_I'm very sorry it took me so long to update. I'm still not entirely happy with this last (!) chapter, but I had to wrap it up somehow and I always struggle a bit with the conclusion. But since the show is now moving rather quickly, I wanted to have this story finished before the next episode. So I really hope you like it all the same! Happy reading!_

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Skye sat in front of the fireplace and stared at the carefully stacked pieces of wood that lay unlit in the middle. Her arms were wrapped around herself for warmth, with only small gain. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and temperatures were noticeably dropping in the small cabin.

The conversation she had had with Ward was playing in her head. On a constant repeat. Like that stupid song she used to love so much back in the orphanage. God, that had been annoying, too. The way he had apologized was somehow stuck in her head, together with the long look he had given her out of those dark eyes. It had been too much for her. She had needed some space and so she had gone for a brisk walk that did not help at all with clearing her head. As it had started to drizzle, she had gone back to the cabin. What else should she have done?

Skye sighed and lifted a hand to massage her forehead. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to believe that there was more to Ward than just the evil Hydra traitor. Maybe she had not gotten all the necessary information about him, maybe there was even an explanation as to why he had acted the way he did. Maybe he was truly, deeply sorry.

However, as soon as her thoughts took that turn, another voice in her head told her to stop. She thought about Koenig's body, the way she had found it. She thought about Fitz and how he had suffered permanent brain damage. Then again, she also thought about a young Grant Ward taking the blame of a major crime for his little brother...

Skye could not help but pull on her hair a little, using the pain to make her circling thoughts pause for a moment. If only there was a foolproof way to make sure Ward was telling the truth. Something like _the_ lie detector. Well, now that she thought about it, he had beaten _the _lie detector before, so chances were pretty slim that someone had built a better machine in the past few months.

A door creaked open and when Skye turned her head, she saw Thomas stepping out of his brother's room and giving her a tentative smile. She tried to smile back, but it felt unnatural to her now, pulling at her face in all the wrong places.

"Is he alright?" she finally asked, since Thomas made no move to start a conversation.

"Yeah," he replied, clasping his hands behind his back, then added sheepishly after a moment, "At least as far as I can tell. I didn't look too closely. Blood tends to freak me out a little. And needles, I hate needles."

All of a sudden, Skye had to bite back a snort.

"Yes, I know what you mean," she replied, looking at the younger Ward as he sat down beside her on the floor. "I used to hate blood and needles, too. Now they're a part of my life. I guess you get used to everything, after a while."

Thomas watched her intently and then started to nod slowly.

"I read this book once," he began. "It was about a man who was interned in a labor camp in Soviet Russia. They took everything he valued, little by little. First his freedom, then his dignity by making him beg for food and taking away his clothes. They made him fight against other inmates and sometimes even kill them. But in the end, he survived. He lived worse than a rat, but he lived. By just adapting to his circumstances. It's what makes us human. Adaptation to everything life throws at us."

Skye looked at him, raising an eyebrow, then pointed out, "Human? I'm not sure you got the memo, but we're Inhuman now."

He sighed in response and replied, "Maybe that's just the next step of adaptation. I still feel very much human, though. I'm afraid all the time, and when I'm not afraid, I'm angry. It's pathetic, really."

"Yeah," Skye replied, her voice almost a whisper. "I guess I know that feeling. There's a third feeling, though. Coldness. It's the only thing that can numb both anger and fear." She hesitated, then added, "I'm cold all the time. And I'm sick of it."

Thomas looked at her out of brown eyes that shone with warmth and understanding, belying his youth and general awkwardness. In this huge clusterfuck of betrayals, family horrors and highly dangerous powers, he had somehow kept a hold on his natural innocence. That was truly remarkable. Just a moment later, she realized that there had been someone who had protected that innocence. There would hardly be anything left of it if Thomas had spent his youth in juvie instead of Grant. There was a high chance that Hydra would have found him there rather sooner than later.

"You're cold?" Thomas asked after a moment. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he nodded towards the unlit fireplace. "You could make fire."

"Really?" Skye asked sarcastically, before she let her face fall and heaved a sigh. "I searched this whole damn place for matches."

He snorted in response, then responded almost cockily, "Who needs matches?"

Flames suddenly appeared in his outstretched hand, dancing merrily as if there were a dozen candles placed in the palm of his hands. Skye watched breathlessly as one small fireball bounced from his fingers into the neatly stacked pieces of wood, lighting them immediately. Not twenty seconds later the fire was fully lit, crackling cozily and casting a warm light over half the cabin.

"Show-off," Skye muttered, making Thomas laugh. Another smile was pulling at her lips and she could not help but notice that it felt much more natural this time.

"Yeah, maybe I am," he replied and she noticed the proud undertone in his voice. "A year ago, I would've burned down the whole place if I had tried something like that. Now, I can handle it, mostly." He paused, then added with an infectious smile, "And I'll tell you a secret: It's really fun if you can control it."

"Yeah, I guess it is," she replied with a sigh, looking away.

Thomas just gave her a look, then bumped a shoulder against her.

"You can do it, too, you know. You just need practice and a safe environment. It took me years to feel safe enough to experiment with my powers." He paused, then added, now rather darkly, "Too bad that I wasn't as safe as I had thought."

He stopped talking, staring blankly at the fire and now it was Skye's turn to bump his shoulder to prompt him to continue.

"What happened?"

"My brother happened," Thomas almost spat. "My oldest brother, Christian. He found me practicing. Obviously, he had no idea how to deal with me and my... special features. Had me locked up in a mental institution for half a year. Involuntary commitment. There was nothing I could do. Most of the time I was too drugged out of my mind anyway. My parents knew, but they didn't do anything. They didn't even come for a visit. Not once."

He chucked another log into the fire, making the sparks fly all around them. Skye kept quiet and let Thomas take his time. He was glowering into the fire and she was unsure if the flames she could see in his eyes were a reflection of the fire in front of him or if they were somehow tied to his powers.

"Grant broke me out," he finally continued, still refusing to look at her. "I was afraid of him at first. Last thing I heard about him was that he was a Hydra agent. But he helped me. Was there when my head finally cleared. Took me to this place here to recover. Then we visited our brother and my parents together."

Skye held her breath. She knew what part she was going to hear now.

"Grant let me rage," Thomas said, tearing his gaze away from the fire and looking at her out of pained eyes that looked so _familiar_ it almost hurt. "He kept himself in the background the whole time. He let me hit Christian and let me set my mother's favorite curtains on fire. But when I was just a tiny step away from killing them all..." He paused and drew a deep breath, "... he held me back. Said it would change me too much."

Frowning, she asked, "So he killed them himself?"

"No," he replied. "They're still alive. Scared out of their wits and keeping their heads down, yes, but they're alive."

That was news to Skye. Just like everything else she heard about Grant and the Wards in general, she was torn between doubting this information and trying to believe it. But this was Thomas talking to her, a civilian that had below average skills at lying and concealing the truth. She watched him intently, but all she managed to do was making him squirm uncomfortably and then looking away. A completely normal reaction of someone not used to being scrutinized.

"Have you ever done it?" he asked uncertainly when she made no move to reply to the things he had said before. "Killed someone, I mean."

"Yes," she answered after hesitating shortly. "And as much as it pains me, I have to agree with your brother on this. It does change you. I'm glad you didn't have to go through this."

Thomas gazed into the fire, then cleared his throat and looked at her directly, looking serious.

"Did you want to kill Grant when you shot him?"

Now it was Skye who averted her gaze to look into the fire. She was too well trained by now to squirm, but this did not mean that she did not possess the urge to fidget anymore. Or the urge to get up and leave. That question was a tricky one and Thomas was the first one to ask it like that. Her team had congratulated her on putting a few rounds into Ward, but no one had asked her about her intentions. No one had asked her why she had done it. No one had questioned her right to do so. Everything had seemed so clear for her team. But Skye knew that things were not as simple as they seemed. And here she was faced with Ward's little brother who brought up the uncomfortable question.

"I... I don't know," she finally answered honestly. "I was just so angry with him back then. I carried that anger around with me for months. Pulling the trigger was... a relief."

Thomas grimaced at that and it made her immediately defensive.

"He betrayed us, Thomas," Skye continued, her voice turning harsh. "He pretended to be that stand-up guy for months. The whole team cared for him, a lot. We fussed about the many scrapes he got and I used to high-five myself every time I managed to make him laugh." She paused, then could not help but feeling angry again, "Damn, he was my S.O.! I trusted him, with all my heart. We had a connection. There even might have been..."

She let her sentence trail off, biting her lips. Too much information. Thomas caught up on it immediately.

"You felt something for him?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"No!" she replied forcefully, then winced to herself and finally admitted, "Maybe. But he had to be an asshole and ruin it all. Sounds a bit like the story of my life. Though he definitely takes the crown when it comes to messing me up, among all the asshole ex-crushes I had. Even beats the one who made me pose as the nanny of his kids when his wife came home."

Thomas chuckled a bit at that and Skye suddenly found herself snorting, too. It was not even funny, but what the hell?

"I don't think he's over you yet," the younger Ward added softly after a moment or two of silence.

That made Skye snort all the more, only this time it was definitely sarcastic.

"No, Thomas, I was a pawn in his game all along. There's no 'feelings' on his side. I'm not even sure he's capable of feeling anything, for anyone."

Thomas shook his head at that, looking sad when he replied, "You don't mean that, Skye."

She felt herself deflating and finally admitted, "No, you're right, I don't... Everything's just so damn complicated."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Thomas began with a teasing undertone, "So, back then, you and him? It was the looks, wasn't it?"

Skye could not help but stare at him, open mouthed, before she got her bearings and replied, "What are you? Twelve?"

He chuckled. "It was definitely the looks."

Skye felt herself rolling her eyes, a smile pulling at her lips.

"No, mister shallow-brain, it wasn't the looks. They're a bonus, though."

Thomas giggled at that. Giggled. "Ha, I knew it."

"Why are you so fixated on your brother's looks?" she asked him with an innocent smile. "It almost sounds like _you_ want to date him."

"That's... that's just wrong in so many ways, I can't even..." Thomas sputtered in reply, now making Skye chuckle in return. He paused, then added seriously after a moment of thinking, "It's unfair, though."

"What is?" she asked, frowning a bit in confusion.

"I remember him differently," the younger Ward answered and was he... pouting? "He used to be that chubby kid and now he looks like a freaking underwear model. That's just unfair."

Skye could not hold back the laugh that bubbled up inside her. God, when was the last time she had laughed?

"I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you," she finally replied with a groan, covering her eyes with the palm of her hand.

Thomas was simply smiling back at her, his eyes twinkling warmly. They sat in a friendly silence and only now she realized that the pitter-patter of the rain against the roof had stopped. She turned her head towards the window and noticed that the sun was casting its first lazy beams into the kitchen.

"I'm gonna get some fresh air," Skye said and got up from the floor.

"Yeah, do that," Thomas replied and gave her another smile.

After the rain, the forest smelled clean and fresh. Skye found herself breathing in deeply. Ducking under low hanging branches and walking over soft moss, she found herself relaxing for the first time in months. She crossed a small stream and spent some time with chucking stones into the water. It almost felt a bit like vacation. Which was strange, since she was still in the clutches of the man she hated most.

Skye winced. Even to her own ears, that somehow sounded off. Sighing to herself as she chucked another stone into the water, she had to admit that she had held Ward responsible for everything that had gone wrong in the past six months. Sure, he had played a vital part in the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it had not been him alone. S.H.I.E.L.D. would have fallen anyway, with Ward or without him. And it was not like he had come out of this confrontation the smirking villain. He had suffered, too. The day she had learned that he was Hydra and she had thrown all her accusations in his face, he had seemed pained. Not smug at having played them or cackling at the prospect of subjugating half the planet. (Well, granted, the last one was a bit over the top.) He had been ruthless, yes, but at the same time he had not looked as if he had enjoyed his role in the big picture. When she tried to picture him in her head, back on that day, she only found one word: Driven. The question was by what. It had not been power or money, that much she knew.

Deep in thoughts, she slowly made her way back to the cabin. The sun was hanging low over the horizon and it was time to find out if Ward had any intention of keeping his promise. When she came to the small clearing that held the cabin, she stopped herself before leaving the forest behind her and just watched.

Ward was there, half-crouching beside the Ford Taurus that looked a little worse for wear after their run-in with the Hydra agents this morning. But what the hell was he doing? He was talking to someone, but she could see neither his brother nor Kara anywhere.

"Don't be so damn stubborn," she heard him mutter and then he kneeled down to peer at the wheel guard of one of the back wheels. "I swear if you don't get out right now..."

He stopped himself and then turned his head in her direction, still on his knees.

"Come out, Skye," he called to her, though she was still hidden behind a few bushes.

Damn, his super spy senses must have sounded alarm, even though she had not made a single sound. She left the forest behind her and walked the few steps to him.

"How did you know it was me?"

"Who else could it be?" he asked back, staring up at her from the ground. His eyes were guarded but she could not help but take it as a token of trust that he was still kneeling.

"An animal?" she shot back, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

He snorted. "No way."

Now she definitely felt a bit insulted.

"How would you know?" she asked, already feeling slightly peeved again. "You hired as a gamekeeper before turning to Hydra's warm bosom?"

Ward shot her a quick smirk that did not even come close to reaching his eyes. "Yeah, something like that."

She just raised her eyebrows at that and when she kept her silence, he added meaningfully, "Deer don't wear perfume."

That was why he had known she was there. Of course someone like him would not just rely on sight and hearing, but also on smell. Maybe part of her anger towards him was born out of the knowledge that he could still easily best her, whenever he wanted. And she did not like feeling at someone's mercy.

The silence stretched and Skye noticed that Ward did not return his attention back to the car. That move would have required turning his back to her and he obviously did not feel like letting her out of his sight. She bit her lips.

"Were you just talking to the car?" she asked with raised eyebrows when the silence got too heavy for her taste and motioned with her head to the Ford.

Ward rolled his eyes at her and replied steadily, "No, of course not."

"I heard you," she said and could not resist adding, "There's no shame in admitting that, Ward, I used to talk to my van, too. Harry and I had some great conversations."

His lips ticked up slightly and she sure as hell did not miss the twinkle in his eyes. The way his face lit up was nothing short of beautiful. It felt like old times... And god, what was she doing? It was definitely wrong how easy it was to get back to teasing him. And her heart sure as hell should not pick up its rate just at the sight of him smiling.

"I wasn't talking to the car," he repeated in a tone that she was very familiar with and sounded both patient and quietly suffering. It did not help with her sudden urge to grin back at him like an idiot. "While we escaped, a ricochet blew a hole into the wheel guard. A squirrel thought this was a nice place for hiding. Which it isn't and we need the car in an hour or two."

"So," Skye replied with a small shake of her head. Really? He had no problems with killing dozens of people, but he was adamant on saving squirrels? "You were talking to a squirrel?"

"Yeah," he answered, his gaze daring her to make a comment. "It bit me when I tried to get it out."

Now she definitely could not hold it back anymore. She laughed.

"I'd bite you, too, Ward," she remarked dryly, watching him glare at her. But for once, there was no malice in his eyes and he sure as hell made no move to hide the amusement on his face.

He got up and motioned for her to take his place beside the wheel. "Be my guest and take your turn at trying to get it out of that hole. Maybe your powers will let you talk some reason into that little guy."

Skye snorted, but crouched down all the same, before she replied, "I'm quite sure that's not part of my powers."

A sudden idea hit her and she placed the palm of her hand against the wheel guard. If she messed this up now, they were short a car, so she took a deep breath to center herself. However, if she was honest, the thought of being stranded at this cabin for a few days longer did not sound all that bad. Yes, her team must be worrying themselves to death, but other than that... No, this had to work. She concentrated on her hand and no one was more amazed than her when the steel sheet beneath her hand started vibrating softly. She breathed a soft laugh, because she could suddenly _feel_ the texture beneath her fingers and knew how the metal would react. It felt so easy. And fun. Thomas definitely had not lied about that part.

It only took about half a minute before the squirrel shot out of the bullet hole, squeaking in protest and disappearing into the woods. She followed it with her eyes and felt a smile pull at her lips.

"Well done," Ward said quietly and when she got up and looked back at him, she saw him smiling as well. It was a shy smile and there was at the same time a sadness in his eyes that she could not place. They looked at each other for a moment longer and Skye found herself drinking him in.

"Well," he muttered, probably slightly uncomfortable under her long stare, and tried to change the subject, "It will still take another hour until it's completely dark, so we'll..."

"Do you have powers, too?" Skye found herself blurting out and interrupting him. She was suddenly loath to let pass this chance at mending at least some of the wounds of the past.

"Me?" Ward asked back with a little shake of his head.

"Yeah, you," she replied. "Powers are passed down from parents to their children and since Thomas is your brother... You got them, too?"

He snorted, then answered dryly, "Only if you count pissing off everyone in my vicinity as a super power."

His attempt at humor took her off-guard and she found herself biting back a grin.

"No, that doesn't count, I'm afraid," she sallied back, "though you _do_ have a special talent in that area."

He flashed her a quick grin, then replied more seriously, "No, I'm very much human." He hesitated a moment, then added quietly, "I'm also quite sure that Tommy and I are only half-brothers. I'll spare you the whole story, but let's just say that when I was about six, our mother was away for quite a long time and came back pregnant. It would also explain why Tommy was her favorite. She hated my father."

Despite Ward telling her about his family in a voice that could only be described as sober and level-headed, Skye was hard-pressed not to let her horror show. He had told her back on the Bus about his family, but only now she got the big picture of how bad it must have been for him. Sure, growing up in an orphanage had not been fun either. But at least no one had torn her down on purpose. It must have been horrible. And it must have left him open for whoever finally came along and offered him even a smidgen of care... Skye gulped and bit her lips. Suddenly everything made a lot more sense.

"Thomas told me," she said slowly, watching him intently, "that you didn't kill them. Your parents and your older brother."

His lips thinned slightly in response and he replied with a sigh, "Tommy should learn when to keep his mouth shut." He paused, then asked suspiciously, "Anything else he told you?"

She thought about the underwear model talk they had shared and then decided to keep silent and shake her head innocently. Ward, of course, did not buy it and looked at her with a frown, but then decided with a small shake of his head, "I don't think I want to know."

The silence they shared afterwards was quite... amiable. They were standing close to each other and every now and then she caught a whiff of the soap he always used mixed with the scent of his leather jacket. It was such a familiar smell that she suddenly found herself aching. She only had to raise her hand and she would be able to touch him. Still, there was a wall of heartache, betrayal and lost hope between them. There was no going back, there never was. The question was if there was any possibility to climb the wall. She was not sure.

The way he looked at her, forehead all wrinkled and his eyes slightly glassy, made her realize that he must be thinking about similar things. His eyes hung a moment longer than necessary on her lips and she felt heat warm her cheeks. She still remembered the way he had felt against her lips, remembered his hand in her hair, remembered the promise and hope she had felt in his caresses. But always, like a storm cloud lurking on the horizon, she also remembered the pain she had felt just a few hours later. And that was when she realized it was too soon. It would be easy to rekindle the spark they had always shared, but the time was not right. However, she suddenly found herself willing to give them more time, as she realized with astonishment.

"Let's get inside and pack your things," Ward prompted huskily. They had made progress which had to be enough for now.

She packed her things quickly and then she had enough time to say goodbye to both Kara and Thomas. Though they hardly got to know each other, it still felt like a loss, leaving this easy comradeship behind her. She smiled a bit at Ward and Kara bickering with each other (the female agent wanted to accompany Ward – he refused) and Thomas rolling his eyes at the two of them.

It took another twenty minutes of arguing, threatening and exasperated sighs before Skye sat in the passenger seat of the car with Ward slowly driving away from the cabin. The sun had set and the forest was dark all around her, but she felt strangely safe with him.

"I can't believe she's trying to make me wear a sling while driving a car," Ward muttered, his thoughts clearly still back at the cabin and in the argument with Kara. "If she ever decides to quit being an agent, she would be a great kindergarten teacher. She's got the worst mother hen instincts ever."

Skye smiled a bit to herself while she looked out of the window and into the dark forest.

"You used to say that about Simmons, too. Back on the Bus," she said and for the first time it was completely free of any bitter undertones. She more felt than saw Ward's gaze lingering on her for a long moment.

"Yeah, maybe I did," he finally replied quietly.

They drove through the night in silence for a while, before Skye chose to speak again.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking at his profile and watching him whip his head around to look at her with wide eyes. If she had not struggled to get this out the right way, it might have been funny. "For shooting you. I guess you didn't deserve that."

He still looked slightly shocked, but worked through it fast.

"No, Skye, I did deserve that back then," he argued. "I got it all wrong. Messed it up. Like everything I do. There's nothing..."

"No, Grant," she interrupted him. "I could've killed you. And I did hurt you badly. It's not... what I wanted. You did bad things, yeah... but... god, why is this so difficult to say?"

All she wanted to tell him was that she still cared. That's it. Easy as that. The words did not want to leave her lips, though.

"It's okay," he replied, voice soft. "You don't have to say anything."

Yes, he was right. Words would fail her anyway. So she slowly stretched out her left hand to lay it over his much bigger one that rested on the gearshift.

He did not twitch.

A small smile pulled on her lips.

\- The End -

_That's it. Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts with me!_


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